After reading about Steam OS on Chromebooks, I can’t help but wonder about possibilities of putting a Steam partition on my Framework. Is there something specific to Chromebooks that would allow Steam, or should we expect a chance of getting a working partition on our Frameworks? Since Steam OS looks to be basically a Linux distro, my fingers are crossed.
Regards,
Stan
You can 
Jokes aside: What chromebooks did was to allow Steam (the app) to run on ChromeOS. SteamOS is specifically just for the steam deck, but for practical purposes (running games), just installing the steam app gives you the ~same experience.
Of course you won’t get some of the hardware-specific features such as the FPS locking but you’ll need a steam deck to get that anyways
Anil,
Thank you very much! So, I wouldn’t be getting anything that I don’t already have, it sounds like. I’m not running Arch but Kubuntu, and Steam is already on my Framework. However, setting up an Arch partition might be a good idea. Never hurts to try another distro.
Regards,
Stan
Probably want to use gamescope too in some cases, as the deck does (kde is X on the deck, but big picture/games are gamescope/wayland sessions)
While I’m all for people ditching ubuntu and moving to a proper distro (hurrdurr), I really don’t think you’ll gain anything. Not if what you’re looking for is “play games on the Framework”. It will be basically the exact same thing.
A Linux-based OS, some graphics drivers, Steam, and Proton.
There’s a ton of reasons to switch from Ubuntu to Arch, IMO, but “getting games via Steam working” isn’t really one of them. (Unless Ubuntu is leaving you starved of drivers that you need. It’s been so long since I was on anything “LTS” that I don’t quite remember how big an issue that would be in that department.)
Keep in mind Steam OS also has a read-only immutable OS file system. I think you can get around it by turning on Developer mode, but I’m not sure what it means for updates and so on
Minor correction: it’s only for the Steam Deck for the time being.
At some point in the (near? far?) future it’ll be made available as a general Linux distro that you can put on whatever compatible hardware.
Borderline necrobump: SteamOS per se on Framework still isn’t really a thing, but Arch, with steam and gamescope is great. Lots of games that the AMD FW 13 can handle are also old enough that they don’t speak Framework’s odd 3:2 resolution. I’ve had very good luck using 1600x1200 or 2560x1600 and using gamescope to scale them to the FW native 2256x1504. Steam, run under gamescope, and opening in Big Picture mode, is very close to the Steam Deck experience.